Church Cookies

A month ago a couple friends mentioned they had stopped eating "sweets" as a new years resolution. I silently and impulsively decided that it sounded like a good idea. On Wednesday an irresponsibly large box of cookies from my home church arrived at my apartment. I got sick the next day. My church cares for my soul, but not so much my body.

Yesterday I attended a screening of "Seventh-Gay Adventists" in Auburn. I liked it a lot. I don't have much personal experience with the subject (except maybe for this), but it's still something I've wrestled with to some extent. The intersection of arguably unclear theology and personal convictions can be an uneasy place to live when the two don't see eye-to-eye, irrespective of what the subject is.

My first reaction is to start lawyering. I wiggle and twist, searching for new angles and interpretations that bring everything back into balance. I don't usually get there, but that's okay. Typically, I end up returning to two familiar quotes:

"Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.

'Who is this that obscures my plans without words and without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you, and you will answer me.

Where were you when I laid the Earth's foundations?'"

Job 38:1-4

"You are not here to verify, 

instruct yourself,

or inform curiosity...

You are here to kneel."

TS Eliot - Four Quartets

These passages don't give much in the way of answers to my questions. Instead, they remind me not to rely on my own understanding. They remind me that having every one of my questions answered maybe isn't the most important objective. They remind me not to allow the things I'm unsure about to obscure the things I am sure about.